My Dear Sweet Murder-A Murder Most Unladylike Fanfic

Kitty

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" I whisper-shouted, picking away at the pricks that had gotten stuck to the fabric of my old shirt. 

  "Yes!" whispered-shouted Beanie back enthusiastically. "Detective Society!"

  She slammed a hand down in the middle of the grass patch and looked to us positively. Lavinia scoffed, and put her hand down on top. I let out a sound of defeat. Slowly, I too, dragged my hand on top.

  "Your count, Beanie," sniggered Lavinia.

  "Detective Society on the count of three! One, two, th-!"

  "What on Earth are you three doing back there?"

  A voice made our hands scatter. We all gasped, then glanced up to find a familiar face staring at us. Very, very familiar. Beanie's face reddened.

  Lavinia straightened up and brushed the dirt away from herself. "Hello, there Edward. We were hoping to meet you."

  Edward raised an eyebrow sarcastically. "Sure you were. Now, care to tell me...?"

  "Uh, yes," I jumped in. I stood up to join Lavinia. "We knocked, but there was no one, and we wanted to ask you some questions. You know, about the case." I flung my palms around wildly, making an absolute embarrassment of myself.

  Edward didn't move. His face expression didn't shift. "I was inside the whole time."

  Lavinia, Beanie and I grinned at him sheepishly. He sighed, and turned around, calling to someone in the house.

  "Mother!" He looked back at us. "Well? Come in."

  In a hurry, we all stumbled after him, naturally getting shoved by each other's elbows.

  Wow. Real professional there everyone.

 ***

Ms Haulings looked extremely pissed to see us there. But honestly, it wasn't like we had interrupted her sharing a top secret plan with Edward.

  Or had we?

  Anything by anyone, is possible.

  Daisy's voice flooded through my brain. I looked at my girls, and I was sure they were thinking the same as we all locked eyes. We had rarely ever done a part of the investigation by ourselves like this. Normally, it felt all at peace with Daisy controlling the atmosphere. However, Daisy and Hazel needed us.

  "Girls, I know how much you all want to help. But it's best if we leave it to the real authorities." Ms Haulings made a point with her head at the newspaper in front of her, with headlines 'Police still looking for murderer-HE'S ON THE RUN!'.

  I sniffed. Lavinia began contradicting Ms Haulings immediately. "The police, who have so far, done literally nothing? You've got quite the humour, Ms..?"

  Beanie giggled.

  Ms Haulings looked ready to pop out in anger. "Ms Haulings, thank you very much, and the other two were way more polite than all three of you combined. Remember," she added. She leaned forward, showing us who had the upper hand. "I'm the one in power. This is my house. I can kick you out whenever."

  "And we're in control of ourselves," I interrupted. "If we want to go, we shall go. But if we want more answers, then we shall ask."

  Lavinia fake laughed, making it seem as if we were making fun of Ms Haulings.

  Ms Haulings gritted her teeth. A sickening crunch came out of her mouth. This was not the 'nice' woman we'd met during the first time. This was a whole new persona.

  Edward watched on uncomfortably. "C'mon Mother," he said, trying to ease her. "We haven't got anything to hide, have we?"

  Ms Haulings softened as she remembered about her eldest son. "Of course not dear," she remarked. "I don't know what had gotten into me." She directed her attention on us again. "Now, darlings, would you like some tea?"

  If that had been some sort of ruse to frighten us, then I can admit that it'd worked. Who knew what she'd turn into next.

  "Um, no thank you," Beanie squeaked out. Yep, it seemed like it had also terrified Beanie a bit.

  Edward gestured for us to sit, and we abided. Only Lavinia looked the littlest of worried; she sat with her legs stretched out yawning.

  Ms Haulings came back with a cup of tea herself. She took a delicate sip before making full eye contact with me. Then Beanie. Then Lavinia (who didn't even look at her back).

  "Now," Ms Haulings began. "I remember some things-nasty things-about Mrs Blueberry."

  "Sure you do," I muttered under my breath.

  "And-" Her eyes pierced my own as she continued smiling. "-I think this would help the investigation very, very much."

  "So why haven't you told the police?" demanded Lavinia. She crossed her legs. "Didn't you just say 'oh, let's leave it ALL to the police'? If you think this would help, then shouldn't the police have some sort of a lead?"

  Ms Haulings chuckled. "They don't listen to old hags. But the young and the bright will."

  "I'm not sure if we should believe her," whispered Beanie.

  "You see, Mrs Blueberry didn't give two cares in the world. She thought her own opinion was dearest. You couldn't go a day working in the manor without hearing her say a racial slur. Alice's gorgeous light Asian skin; no blemishes, no scars, would be made fun of. Chink," hissed Ms Haulings suddenly. "One day, Alice got sick of it. And she yelled at her best friend for ten minutes straight, tears rushing down her face. Next minute she was on the Carrington II and after that, Mrs Blueberry was dead."

  Lavinia, Beanie and I all looked at each other as we realised no one was writing down notes. Ms Haulings noticed too, and she gave us a fake look of sympathy. "Not so 'detective-like' are we now, girls? Maybe you'll just have to listen."

  My face reddened with embarrassment. She was right. Maybe we weren't cut out to be the detectives everyone thought we were.

  But I did realise something, and I was sure to share it with the group after. It hadn't even been five minutes into the interview and Ms Haulings had already started unraveling the cobweb of deceit. How was Alice caught down at the manor at 10pm (the time around that Mrs Blueberry was murdered) if she was already on the Carrington II, as claimed by Ms Haulings?